Are You My Mother?
by micah-l-lucas
Summary: Peter Parker searches for and (sort of) finds a mother figure. In other words, young spider shows off to momma spider who can't be bothered.


Young Peter Parker has always had trouble grasping one simple concept: he does not have a mother. Technically, yes, Mary Parker had carried him and given birth to him, but she had long since died, leaving her son's life just as quickly as he'd come into hers. He hadn't even noticed her absence until he grew a bit older, big enough to form memories and recognize the differences between himself and others.

He has no memory of Mary. He can get J.A.R.V.I.S to show him pictures if he asks, which he does sometimes, but not too much. She's a young brunette with dark eyes like Peter's, and a pretty smile. She didn't look like a mom—at least not like the ones Peter saw on TV. The moms on TV seemed older, maybe a little cranky sometimes, but it was always clear that they loved their children. Peter found it hard to imagine the woman in the picture in their position.

He may not have a mom, but he does have Mr. Stark. Mr. Stark wasn't much of a parent most of the time, but he was there for the most part. Usually in the mornings when Peter was eating breakfast, he'd be there with a "hey bud" or a "mornin' Pete" as he poured himself some coffee before disappearing off to the lab. Peter also had Pepper, who wasn't much of a mom to him, but more of a… supervisor. A babysitter. She's there to make sure he behaves himself when Mr. Stark isn't around. She doesn't seem to _enjoy_ this, necessarily, because she has more important things she could be doing, but she always watches Peter when Mr. Stark asks.

"Hey, Pepper," Peter says one day, scribbling away with a blue crayon. "You wanna see my pic-ture?"

Pepper, who'd been typing rather furiously on a laptop keyboard at the time, peered over at Peter. The young boy held up his drawing: a few stick figures holding hands, one big and the other small. Pepper assumed that this was meant to be Tony and Peter.

Pepper smiled at the boy. "Good job, Peter," she said, and then reached over and ruffled his hair. Had someone been watching the interaction, they would be able to tell that Pepper was not entirely comfortable around Peter. She'd been better with him when he was a baby and his needs were more basic, and if she were to mess up he wouldn't recall it. Peter didn't seem to notice her discomfort and continued to scribble over his drawing.

Pepper had to admit that Peter made some of the more… _awkward_ aspects of her job a little easier. Escorting the many women Tony brought home out of the house became a lot easier when they woke up to find a little boy eating cereal at the kitchen table. On more than one occasion little Peter had looked up from his breakfast, mouth full of Cheerios with milk dripping from his chin, and said:

"Are you gonna be my new mom?"

Tony, when he'd been present, had only smiled and clapped Peter on the shoulder. "Nice work, kid," he'd say. Pepper wasn't sure if Tony had fed him the line or if Peter was just genuinely curious. Needless to say it was extremely effective in warding off Tony's one-night stands.

There was another woman who frequented the tower: Natalie Rushman, Tony's most recent assistant who'd taken over following Pepper being appointed CEO of Stark Industries. Natalie was a beautiful young woman with fiery, curly red hair and blue eyes. Despite the public nature of Pepper taking of Stark Industries, Peter had not been informed that Natalie was Mr. Stark's new assistant. To him it just seemed as if a new woman began appearing regularly around Stark Towers. Naturally, little Peter jumped to his own conclusions.

One day Tony had been working in the main room of his floor on the tower. Natalie was standing in close proximity, peering at some of Tony's work as he explained something far above the comprehension of a young boy. Peter, to keep himself entertained, was practicing doing flips near the couch.

"Hey, Mom!" he'd called. Neither Tony nor Natalie turned their attention to him. "Mom! Watch this!"

Peter pressed his palms flat to the floor before rolling forward in a somersault. When he was right side up again, his eyes travelled to Tony and Natalie, who were still engrossed in Tony's work.

"Okay, I'm gonna do it again," Peter informed as he pushed himself up from the floor. He backtracked to his original position and prepared to do another flip. "Okay, watch. Watch, okay?" He looked at Tony and Natalie, waiting for them to notice. "Mom," he repeated. "Mom, are you watching? Mom! Mom! You're not watching!"

At this, both Natalie and Tony turned to the boy, who immediately redid the somersault for the two to see. Upon finishing, Peter looked to them for approval.

Tony simply laughed. "Pete, Nat's not your mom," he explained.

"She could be!" Peter said without missing a beat. "If she wanted to."

Tony shook his head a bit, smiling at Peter, and began to apologize to Natalie. She, however, didn't seem to mind. She simply grinned at the young boy.

"That was very good, Peter," she praised. "Can you do another one?"

Peter immediately brightened at the praise, his eyes lighting up. "Yeah!" he said, bouncing to his feet and running to do another one.

Tony gave Natalie a small smile as Peter showed off another somersault. "Thanks," he said quietly.

Natalie smiled back. "No problem," she responded, before turning to watch Peter attempt another flip.


End file.
